there is already a tutorial system, as such. it sends out a series of messages to new users as they step through various milestones of gameplay. i am not sure when it was done but my guess is the last 12 months.

there are many challenges with tutorials, instructions and information in general. they are difficult to maintain and are not as valuable as expected because new players are simply not patient or interested enough to put in the effort required... and the ones that are, just learn by practice in what is, at the end of the day, not an especially complex game (CC has a lot more going on than just the game of course).

having said all that i am about to move into re-engineering the new player experience.

unfortunately this suggestion does not appear to suggest anything other than general concept... and that seems to already exist. at least in the OP. so, either it gets fleshed out or closed.

bigWham wrote:there is already a tutorial system, as such. it sends out a series of messages to new users as they step through various milestones of gameplay. i am not sure when it was done but my guess is the last 12 months.

there are many challenges with tutorials, instructions and information in general. they are difficult to maintain and are not as valuable as expected because new players are simply not patient or interested enough to put in the effort required... and the ones that are, just learn by practice in what is, at the end of the day, not an especially complex game (CC has a lot more going on than just the game of course).

having said all that i am about to move into re-engineering the new player experience.

unfortunately this suggestion does not appear to suggest anything other than general concept... and that seems to already exist. at least in the OP. so, either it gets fleshed out or closed.

a silly video going quickly over the basics would help a lot, you don't need to cover everything, you can keep saying "an many other options like blah, you can check them out at the blah section and a quick zoom in to the link to the section.

a silly voice, funny comments in the middle, stuff like that, inside jokes that hint to the existence a community (not to elaborated, something like "just don't go nuts like InsomniaRed"), etc.

That would be an excellent start for newbies, because, let's be honest, we love the light interface in the sense it has not a lot of images and such, but to someone new this doesn't look very appealing, just a bunch of text and a 1998-like left menu. And from then on you could think of more thorough tutorials

Sales is about the show. If I got my uncle Ralph to say how great my sofas are, that would be good...but maybe not. My uncle Ralph is overweight and undersexed. He likes to say that we are all pedophiles as we all touched ourselves as children.

I think the guide idea is good...but maybe not. It's still too early for the new player. Most of the new players have zero concept about the controls, the idea of attack, reinforcement, bonuses, neutral, how many dice are rolled, etc.

The sale of the product is in the demo. It shows people how easy it is, how great it is, how challenging it is, how satisfying it is implicitly. It should be utterly simple and clear. There are many examples of decent demos with iphone games. Farm (?) shows the person how to engage in the product and they are off to the races. This site just sends peeps to the races.

I have played risk before and know the rules but not the controls. But the site should not even take that for granted. Attracting real life risk players is trying to catch the last of the dodos. Better shoot for the turkeys or pigeons. That is, the intro should not just be about the controls but the basic mechanics of the game, after which a new recruit could engage in the game at a mediocre level at least.

Again, this is a demo that implicitly does that which CC says it sets out to do: thrill of the chase, victory, breaking a border, defending one. Multiplayer, speed, trench.

Using a preset configuration, place the player in position to take Australia. Highlight begin, troops and deploy. Take out two territories using tap, not auto and explain the odds (7% chance of not losing any troops, you must be raw talent). Then get them to reinforce to bangkok. Next turn, get the config to take SA, get the new recruit to break it.

Several aspects of the game can be done in the demo. The key is to be informative, exciting, and rewarding to the new recruit. After such an intro, a guide game could be set up. Alert the new recruit to the chat function (as none seem to see it). Provide the guides with a simple guide game pitch, ie prepare the guide to give the impression that will most attract the new recruit to stay online.

I know a lot is going on, but remember the words of my uncle and set up the guide to benefit the site and not his hairy balls.

why couldn't this just be an animated short intro video that they watch? seems like that would be pretty easy to put together, wouldn't involve as much programming as your idea will take and it could be wicked cool. i think your idea is a good one, but seems like a ton of programming and effort, which we both know will put it on the back burner... a video is something that would be very easy to create and update... just my 2 schillings worth... the black jesus has spoken...-Jésus noir

Sure there are many ways of doing it and others have made better suggestions in this respect.

I thought that CC had the programming ability...

I think an interesting offshoot of this is acquiring "wings" like you give to your sweet angels. Ie in completing an achievement, new settings open to the player.

There are much better players than I to suggest what sort of training programs could be implemented, via video, PowerPoint, program, but in general it is a rather standard method of introducing newbies to a complex site, it would provide a useful pre-step to guide games and (I believe Jesus) would bring up the retention rate of accidental players.